Today I Baked A Pumpkin

Or, to be absolutely honest with you, today I baked a Long Island Cheese Pumpkin (or Squash). That's what one does when the roads are incredibly icy and you don't have to go about your normal morning duties/routines, right?

This year was the first for Long Island Cheese's in my garden. In fact, I kinda just tucked the one plant behind a bunch of perennials. In my actual vegetable garden, I grow butternut squash, my absolute favorite winter squash but a close relative to the Long Island Cheese. But I may have to grow less of them and put in another of these, because not only do they taste wonderful but they make the prettiest looking fall decorations (people didn't even think they were real!).

Now, this year, I probably went over board on squashes. Or it was just the year for them. Regardless, I harvested 22 butternut squashes and a couple of Long Island's that were each about 6-8 lbs. I probably have enough to last me through a good portion of next year since we don't eat them every week. Or maybe we're going to have to start. Either way, come April or May, I'll have to process and freeze whatever is left.

So, back to today. I managed to cut one of the Long Island's open and baked it at 375 for about an hour on a aluminum foil lined baking sheet after cleaning out the inside. Then I let it cool down. After it had cooled, I used a paring knife and cut of the outer skin (easier I think, than scooping it out with these types of squash). In two batches, I pureed the squash with no added liquid. What I was left with was 3 15oz. cans worth of puree plus one cup. I froze two cans worth and made one pie and one batch of muffins. I can't vouch for the pie yet but the muffins were AWESOME! Here is the recipe I worked off of (and of course, I'll tell you what I changed).

From Food Network's Ellie Krieger

Pumpkin Muffins:

Ingredients:

• Cooking spray
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole-grain pastry flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons unsulphered molasses
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup lowfat buttermilk
• 1/4 cup raw, unsalted pumpkin seeds

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Coat a 12-cup muffin pan with cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the all-purpose and whole-wheat flours, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg.

In a large bowl, whisk the sugar, molasses, oil and 1 egg until combined. Add the other egg and whisk well. Whisk in the pumpkin and vanilla. Whisk in the flour mixture in 2 batches, alternating with the buttermilk. Whisk just until combined.

Pour the batter into the prepared muffin pan and sprinkle with the pumpkin seeds. Tap the pan on the counter a few times to remove any air bubbles. Bake for 20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center of 1 of the muffins comes out clean.

Let cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Run a knife around the muffins to loosen them and unmold. Cool completely on the rack.

Now, I didn't have molasses so I substituted another tablespoon of brown sugar and poured a little maple syrup in the batter. Sorry, I didn't measure but I'm guessing it was about 2 tablespoons. :) Also, I didn't have any pumpkin seeds to place on top so I simply omitted that. The recipe made 12 very nice sized muffins that I think turned out very visually appealing. Here's a picture:


And because, I took a picture of the pie too:

Yes, Strawberry Ice Cream

I asked the kids the other week, "What kind of ice cream do you want me to make?" In my mind, the fruit and ice cream really don't go together but the answer was unanimous - any kind of ice cream that has berries!

In my fridge was a big ole package of strawberries from Fareway. We had used some but I knew the others needed to be used quickly so it was really the perfect use for them. A quick search on the internet came up with this recipe.

Strawberry Ice Cream

Rated: Submitted By: Christy J. Photo By: Trisha Prep Time: 25 Minutes Cook Time: 15 Minutes Ready In: 1 Hour 40 Minutes Servings: 6

"This vibrant frozen dessert offers fresh berry flavor at its best."

Ingredients:

1 quart fresh strawberries, hulled 1 1/2 cups heavy cream, divided 3/4 cup white sugar

3 egg yolks 3 tablespoons light corn syrup

Directions:

1.	Place the berries into the container of a blender or food processor, and puree until smooth. Pour into a large bowl, and set aside.
2.	Heat 1 1/4 cups of the cream in a saucepan over medium heat until it begins to bubble at the edge of the pan. In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, egg yolks, remaining 1/4 cup cream, and corn syrup. Gradually pour the hot cream into the egg yolk mixture, whisking constantly. Return the mixture to the saucepan, and heat until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a metal spoon, about 5 minutes. Do not allow the mixture to boil. Strain custard into the berry puree through a sieve, mix, and refrigerate until chilled.
3.	Fill an ice cream maker with the mixture, and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Now, some people suggested leaving some of the strawberries out of the puree. I, emphatically think this is a bad idea. I mean, a frozen berry in your mouth when you are eating a smooth and creamy dessert? No thank you! So I blended all the berries. Here are some before and after pictures.


As you can see, the pureeing really makes a difference in the total volume (as opposed to the mass - can you tell I'm married to an engineer?).

I didn't get a picture of making the custard. I did use a wooden spoon as opposed to a metal spoon. When you can swipe a finger across the back of it and see the trail it is done. It really doesn't take that long. What takes a longer time is for the ice cream base to cool down before you put it in the ice cream maker!

Here's one last picture just because I thought it was so pretty when I poured the custard into the strawberries:

I didn't get a picture of the finished product but it was a very lovely color and what is more important - it tasted awesome! The strawberry flavor was very intense. It was awesome with chocolate syrup and whipped cream on top. I think some cut up bananas would have made the sundae over the top! We also used this in smoothies. Very good!

Coconut Ice Cream

I've been having lots of fun dreaming up ice cream flavors to make in our new ice cream maker (recently purchased off of Craigslist). While eating a sundae of caramel ice cream topped with Girl Scout Caramel deLites, I decided that a coconut ice cream was the way to go. I looked on-line to find recipes but didn't find one that suited my pantry list. So, I decided to make up my own (boy, am I brave!) coconut ice cream recipe. Let me tell you, it was da bomb! Yea baby! I highly recommend using that chocolate magic shell topping - it would be like eating a frozen Mounds ice cream bar...mmmmmm.

Coconut Ice Cream

1 can coconut milk
1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup half and half
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Stir these ingredients together and pour into your ice cream maker (per manufactur's instructions).

Toast 1 cup sweetened coconut flakes (you must toast them, it really brings out the nutty sweet flavor of them). Add to the ice cream mixture 10 minutes after it has begun.

When the ice cream maker is finished, spoon the ice cream into an air tight container and store in the freezer. It is good to let this set-up a little more, so try to give it at least 4 hours in the freezer before you dig in. Enjoy!